The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an action role-playing open world video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth installment in The Elder Scrolls action role-playing video game series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Skyrim's main story revolves around the player character's efforts to defeat Alduin, a Dragon god who is prophesied to destroy the world. Set two hundred years after Oblivion, the game takes place in the fictional province of Skyrim, upon the continent of Tamriel, and the planet of Nirn. The open world gameplay of the Elder Scrolls series returns in Skyrim; the player can explore the land at will and ignore or postpone the main quest indefinitely. Skyrim was a critical and commercial success, receiving universal acclaim and shipping over 7 million copies to retailers within the first week of release.[8] The nonlinear gameplay traditional in the Elder Scrolls series is incorporated in Skyrim.[9] The player can explore the open world of Skyrim on foot or on horse, and fast-travel to cities, towns, and dungeons after they have been discovered.[10] Quests are given to the player by non-player characters (NPCs) in the world, and through the Radiant Story system, the quests can be dynamically altered to accommodate for player actions which may influence the quest's characters and objectives. The Radiant Story then further directs the player's interaction with the world by setting unexplored dungeons as quest locations.[11] When not completing quests, the player can interact with NPCs through conversation, and they may request favors or training in skills from the player.[12] In addition to scripted quests certain ones will be dynamically generated, providing a limitless number to the player.[9] Some NPCs can become companions to the player to aid in combat.[13] The player may choose to join factions, which are organized groups of NPCs such as the Dark Brotherhood, a band of assassins.[14] Each of the factions has a headquarters, and they have their own quest paths which the player can progress through. The economy of cities and towns can be stimulated by completing jobs such as farming and mining, or spending large amounts of gold in the stores. Alternatively, the economy may be harmed by forging business ledgers and robbing the safes of stores.[15] When exploring the game world, the player may encounter wildlife. Many wilderness monsters are immediately hostile towards the player and thus can be slain.[9] The inclusion of Dragons in Skyrim affords a major influence on both story and gameplay. Character development Character development is a primary element of Skyrim. At the beginning of the game, the player selects one of several human, elven, or zoomorphic human races (see Races of The Elder Scrolls), each of which has different natural abilities, and customizes their character's appearance.[16] A perpetual objective for the player is to improve their character's skills, which are numerical representations of their ability in certain areas. There are eighteen skills divided evenly between the three schools of combat, magic and stealth. Training skills until the necessary required experience is met results in the player's character leveling-up. Previous Elder Scrolls games made use of a class system to determine which skills would contribute to the character's leveling, but its removal in Skyrim allows for a preferred play-style to be developed naturally.[11][17] When their character levels, the player may choose to select a skill-specific ability called a perk, or store perks for later use. Upon levelling fifty times, the player character can continue to level and earn perks, but the rate of levelling is slowed significantly.[18] Combat A heads-up display appears when any one of the player's three attributes are being depleted. Health is depleted primarily through combat and can be restored by spells, potions, or resting; the loss of all health results in death. Magicka allows for and is depleted by the use of spells; it is regenerated naturally over time, but it can be restored in similar ways to health. Stamina determines the player's effectiveness in combat and is depleted by sprinting, jumping, and power attacking, but can be restored in similar ways to health and magicka. The player's inventory can be accessed from the menu and items can be viewed in 3D, which may be essential in solving puzzles found in dungeons.[19] The player's effectiveness in combat relies on the use of weapons and armor, which may be bought or created at forges, and magic, which may also be bought or unlocked. Weapons and magic are assigned to each hand, allowing for dual-wielding, and can be swapped out through a quick-access menu of favorite items.[20] Shields can be used either to fend off enemy attacks and reduce the damage intake, or offensively through bashing attacks. Blunt, bladed and hacking weapons can be used in close combat and each have specific advantages and roles; as an example, the player can perform power attacks with each weapon. Magic can be used in the form of spells; each of the eighty-five spells has a different function, such as the regeneration of health or the depletion of enemy health.[21] The bow and arrow may be utilized in long-range combat, but the bow can be used as a defensive melee weapon in close combat. Another change from previous games in the series is the elimination of weapon and armor durability; in which a player would periodically have to repair or pay to have items repaired or risk rendering them broken and unusable. The player can enter a sneak mode and pickpocket, or deliver sneak attacks to unsuspecting enemies. If the player drops unwanted loot, such as a shield or item of clothing, some NPCs will attempt to pick the item up, some even asking the player's permission to take the item.[22] During the game's development, a team was set aside to work on Dragons and their interactions with the world.[11] In the world, a variety of different Dragons are encountered either alone or in small groups. They are randomly-generated, meaning their numbers are infinite, and they can attack cities and towns at any time.[23] Not every Dragon is hostile, and the player can interact with non-hostile Dragons. Early in the main quest, it is discovered that the player character is Dragonborn, which allows the player to use powerful spells called Dragon shouts or "Thu'um". Each shout contains three words, and the strength of the shout will vary depending on how many words have been spoken. Twenty different Thu'um can be discovered by visiting "Word-Walls" in dungeons, and they are unlocked for use by absorbing the souls of slain Dragons.[24][25] A regeneration period limits the player's use of shouts in gameplay.[26] Setting Skyrim is not a direct sequel to Oblivion, but a new chapter in the Elder Scrolls series, set 200 years after the events of Oblivion.[24] Following the death of Martin Septim and the end of the Oblivion crisis, this heralded the beginning of the Fourth Era. A Colovian warlord from Cyrodiil named Titus Mede conquers the Imperial City, beginning the Mede dynasty in absence of the previous Septim bloodline. In the Empire's weak state, the provinces of Elsweyr, Black Marsh, Valenwood, and the Summerset Isles secede from the Empire. The provinces of the Summerset Isles and Valenwood, home to the Altmer and Bosmer, respectively, create the Aldmeri Dominion, an Elven empire, and rename the founding provinces to "Alinor". Thirty years prior to the events of Skyrim, the Thalmor, who govern the Dominion, begin to invade both Hammerfell and Cyrodiil, beginning the "Great War", due to a rejection of an ultimatum presented by a Dominion ambassador to the current Emperor, Titus Mede II. The Empire manages to survive the Thalmor assault by agreeing to sign the "White-Gold Concordat", a treaty which prohibits the worship of Talos throughout the Empire. Following the end of the Great War, the Blades, an order of warriors devoted to the protection of the Emperor of Tamriel, are hunted down and killed by the Thalmor, or else seclude themselves from the rest of the world, with the Emperor protected instead by an elite Imperial security force known as the Penitus Oculatus. Ulfric Stormcloak, the Jarl of Windhelm, establishes the Stormcloak faction and rebels against the Empire in order to liberate Skyrim in response to the ban of Talos worship. This culminates in Ulfric killing Skyrim's High King, Torygg, in a duel. The Empire responds to the death of the High King by deploying the Imperial Legion to quell the rebel threat. As with previous Elder Scrolls games, Skyrim begins with the player character as an unknown prisoner, caught in an Imperial ambush while attempting to cross the border into Skyrim, on a wagon with several Stormcloak prisoners and a horse thief. They are all headed to Helgen to be executed. As the player character is about to be beheaded, a Dragon arrives, interrupting the execution and destroying the town. The player eventually learns that Skyrim's civil war is last in a sequence of prophetic events foretold by the Elder Scrolls, which also foretell of the return of Alduin, the Nordic Dragon-god of destruction. Alduin is prophesied to consume the world. The player character is the latest "Dovahkiin" (Dragonborn), an individual with the body of a mortal and the soul of a Dragon. Dragonborns are anointed by the gods to help fend off the threat Alduin poses to Skyrim and Tamriel. Among the individuals aiding the player are Delphine (voiced by Joan Allen) and Esbern (voiced by Max von Sydow), two of the last remaining Blades, and Master Arngeir (voiced by Christopher Plummer), a member of the Greybeards.[24] Plot Following the Dragon attack on Helgen, the player character may choose to escape either with an Imperial soldier or a Stormcloak rebel. After the escape, the player travels to the nearby town of Riverwood. The player is then asked to travel to the city of Whiterun, to request aid from the Jarl against the Dragon threat. The Jarl agrees to send a detachment of soldiers to Riverwood, and asks the player to aid his court-wizard in return, retrieving a Dragonstone from a nearby ruin known as Bleak Falls Barrow. The player discovers a Word-Wall in the process, learning their first "Thu'um", the shouts used by the ancient Nords to battle the Dragons. Upon returning to Whiterun, the player is asked to assist in defending the city from an attacking Dragon. After defeating the Dragon, the player character absorbs the Dragon's soul. Astonished, the Whiterun soldiers tell the player that they may be a "Dragonborn", able to naturally speak Draconic, the Dragon language, and absorb their souls. After returning to the Jarl with news of the Dragon's defeat, the player is summoned to meet with the Greybeards, an order of monks who live in seclusion in their temple of High Hrothgar on the slopes of Skyrim's highest mountain, The Throat of the World. The Greybeards further train the player in the "Way of the Voice", teaching the player more powerful Thu'um's and instructing the player on their destiny and role of the Dragonborn. As a further test, the Greybeards task the player with retrieving the legendary Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. However, the player discovers the Horn has been stolen by another, who wishes to meet with the Dragonborn. The thief reveals herself as Delphine, Riverwood's innkeeper and one of the last surviving members of The Blades. Delphine and the player witness Alduin reviving a Dragon from a burial mound and defeat the Dragon. Afterwards, Delphine helps the player infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy near Solitude, the headquarters of agents of the Elven Aldmeri Dominion, to follow up on her suspicions about the Thalmor's possible involvement with the Dragon threat. While there, Delphine and the player discover the Thalmor are searching for a man named Esbern, an archivist of the Blades Order. Delphine then instructs the player to locate Esbern, known to be hiding in the sewers and ratways of Riften. The player character accompanies the Blades in search of "Alduin's Wall", located in an ancient Blades fortress known as Sky Haven Temple. While the Blades set up headquarters in the temple, the player character learns that the ancient Nords used a special Thu'um against Alduin called "Dragonrend", which represented mankind's comprehensive hatred for the Dragons, to cripple his ability to fly so they could engage him. To gain more information, the player meets the leader of the Greybeards, an ancient Dragon, and once one of Alduin's most feared generals, named Paarthurnax. Paarthurnax reveals that Alduin was not truly defeated in the past, but was sent forward to an unspecified point in time by the use of an Elder Scroll, in the hopes that he would get lost. The player manages to locate the Elder Scroll within the Dwemer ruin of Blackreach and uses it to travel back in time, learning the powerful Dragonrend shout to combat Alduin. Armed with the knowledge of how the ancient Nords defeated Alduin, the player battles Alduin on the summit of the Throat of the World. Overpowered by the player, Alduin flees to Sovngarde, the Nordic afterlife. The player learns that Dragonsreach, the palace of the Jarl of Whiterun, was originally built to trap and hold a dragon. The Jarl refuses to allow the player to utilize Dragonsreach and possibly endanger the city if the civil war between the Stormcloaks and the Imperial Legion still rages. With the help of the Greybeards, the player calls a council between General Tullius and Ulfric Stormcloak, successfully calling for a temporary armistice while the Dragon threat exists. The player summons and traps a Dragon named Odahviing in Dragonsreach, learning from him that Alduin has fled to Sovngarde through a portal located high in the mountains, at an ancient fort called Skuldafn. Odahviing, impressed with the player's Thu'um and ability to capture him, agrees to fly the player to Skuldafn, claiming Alduin has shown himself as weak and undeserving of leadership over the "Dovah"/Dragons. Upon arrival at Skuldafn, the player travels to Sovngarde and meets with Ysgramor, the legendary Nord who, along with his Five Hundred Companions, drove the Elves out of Skyrim. Ysgramor informs the player that Alduin has placed a "soul snare" in Sovngarde, allowing him to gain strength by devouring the souls of deceased Nords arriving there. The player meets up with the three heroes of Nordic legend who defeated Alduin originally, and, with their help, confronts Alduin in Sovngarde and destroys him. After this, the player is given a new shout to summon one of the three heroes from Sovngarde and is transported back to the top of the Throat of the World. The Main Quest then concludes and the player is free to continue their travels in Skyrim. Skyrim was conceptualized shortly after the release of Oblivion in 2006.[28] Work on Skyrim did not begin until Fallout 3's release in 2008; developers considered the game to be a spiritual successor to both Fallout 3 and previous Elder Scrolls games.[29] The game was developed by a team of roughly 100 people composed of new talent as well as of the series's veterans.[28] The production was supervised by Todd Howard, who was the director of many titles released by Bethesda Softworks.[28] Technology Skyrim is powered by Bethesda's own Creation Engine, a new engine created prior to Skyrim's release.[30][31] Bethesda has officially stated that the engine will be used at least in one more project apart from Skyrim.[32] After Fallout 3's release, the team devised numerous design objectives to meet for Skyrim, and as Howard described, the team "got all those done and kept going".[33] Had the team not been able to meet their design goals with current hardware, they would have waited for the next generation and released Skyrim then,[34] but, as Howard felt, the current technology did not hold the team back at all.[33] The Creation Engine allowed for numerous improvements in graphical fidelity over Bethesda's previous efforts. For example, the draw distance renders farther than in previous Elder Scrolls games; Howard furnished an example where the player could stare at a small object such as a fork in detail, and then look up at a mountain and run to the top of it.[35] Dynamic lighting affords shadows to be created by any structure or item in the game world, and while Bethesda utilized SpeedTree to produce flora in previous games, the Creation Engine utilized by Skyrim allowed for greater detail than what had been allowed by SpeedTree.[24] For example, with Bethesda's own technology, the team was able to give weight to the branches of trees which affected how the tree blew in wind; in addition, the technology afforded wind to affect the flow of water in channels such as rivers and streams.[12] Because of the large presence of snow in Skyrim's game world, the technological upgrades were applied to weather effects and allowed for dynamic snow fall upon the terrain, instead of snow that was rendered as a textural effect in previous games.[12] The team made use of Havok's Behavior toolset for character animation, which allowed for a greater fluidity between the character's movements of walking, running and sprinting, and also increased the efficiency of the third-person camera option which had been criticized in Oblivion.[12][36] The toolset allowed interactions between the player and NPCs to take place in real-time; in Oblivion, when the player went to interact with an NPC, time would freeze and the camera would zoom in on the NPC's face. In Skyrim, NPCs can move around and make body gestures while conversing with the player. Children are present in the game, and their presence is handled similarly as in Fallout 3 in that they cannot be harmed by the player in any way[24] since depictions of violence involving children in video games is a controversial and largely-debated issue.[37] Skyrim makes use of the Radiant AI artificial intelligence system that was created for Oblivion, and it has been updated to allow NPCs to "do what they want under extra parameters".[23] The updated system allows for greater interaction between NPCs and their environments; NPCs can perform tasks such as farming, milling and mining in the game world, and will react with each other, such as by fighting over loot that the player has dropped.[38] The team set the game in the province of Skyrim, designing it by hand. While similar in size to Oblivion's game world Cyrodiil, the mountainous topography of the world inflates the game space and makes it more difficult to traverse than the relatively flat Cyrodiil.[26] In designing Skyrim's world, the team opted for a different approach to what was taken with Oblivion; art director Matt Carofano considered the more surrealistic approach of Skyrim's world design as a departure from Oblivion's generic representation of classic European fantasy lore.[16] Howard expressed the team's desire to re-encapsulate the "wonder of discovery" of Morrowind's game world in Skyrim, as the return to the classic fantasy of Arena and The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall in Oblivion meant sacrificing a world with a unique culture.[35] As a way of creating diversity in the world, the team divided the world into nine sectors, known as holds, and attempted to make each hold feel topographically unique from another; in addition, the team wanted to reflect the socioeconomic background of the NPCs by making some of the world's locations elaborate and wealthy and others poorer and lower-tech.[11] Focus was put into making each of the game's ten races feel unique; Howard considered that the player's choosing of a race at the beginning of the game was a more important decision than it had been in previous Elder Scrolls games because the culture of Skyrim's world contains more racism. However, he iterated that the player's choice of race did not have major game-affecting consequences as it simply added "flavor" in different NPCs dispositions towards the player, and was not meant as a way of locking players out of particular quests.[33] Efforts to making Skyrim's world feel hand-crafted extended to the team abandoning the use of generated landscapes as they had done in Oblivion. While one team member was charged with designing dungeons in Oblivion, Skyrim's 150 dungeons were designed by a small team of eight people.[40] Bethesda employed over seventy voice actors to record the voices of NPCs in the game; the total number of lines recorded for NPCs is over 60,000. The cast includes Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow, Joan Allen, Lynda Carter, Vladimir Kulich and Michael Hogan.[41] Skyrim features 244 quests and over 300 points of interest.[42] On May 1, 2012, Bethesda announced that the first downloadable content (DLC) for Skyrim, called Dawnguard, will launch first for Xbox 360 in Summer 2012 and will remain exclusive to that platform for 30 days. After that time has elapsed, it will spread to additional platforms.[43] The team employed Jeremy Soule to compose music for Skyrim after his work on Morrowind and Oblivion. He composed "Dragonborn", the game's main theme. "Dragonborn" was recorded with a choir of over thirty people, singing in the game world's dragon language.[44] Creative director Todd Howard envisioned the theme for Skyrim as the Elder Scrolls theme sung by a choir of barbarians. This became a reality when the idea was passed by Soule, who recorded the 30-man choir and layered three separate recordings to create the effect of 90 voices.[45] The language, Draconic, was created by Bethesda's concept artist Adam Adamowicz, and he developed a 34-character runic alphabet for the game.[39] The lexicon of Draconic was expanded as needed; as lead designer Bruce Nesmith explained, words were introduced to the lexicon "every time studio wanted to say something".[23] As with the previous two entries in the series, the soundtrack to Skyrim is sold exclusively via Jeremy Soule's distributor DirectSong; on November 4, 2011 a physical-only release consisting of 4 audio CDs was announced, coinciding with the launch of the game. All copies preordered before December 23 will be personally autographed by Soule.[46] Following an October 17 tweet from Pete Hines, vice president of public relations and marketing at Bethesda, stating "The OST would take 4 CDs",[47] a 4-disc CD set release was spotted by Digital Song customers during an account display error.[48] "Day One" preorders from Amazon.de also include a 5-track promotional Skyrim soundtrack sampler.[49] Skyrim was first announced at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California on December 11, 2010. The center was the host of Spike's annual Video Game Awards; Howard appeared on stage during the awards and presented its announcement trailer, which introduced the game's story and revealed its "11-11-11" release date.[50] It was the cover story for the February 2011 issue of the Game Informer magazine, wherein journalist Matt Miller wrote a fifteen-page article that revealed the first details about the game's story and gameplay.[24] Asked about downloadable content (DLC) packages in a June 2011 interview, Howard expressed that it was the team's intention to release DLC packages after having done so for previous releases; he revealed that it was the team's goal to release a lower number of DLC packages that were larger in content than those released for Fallout 3, as he felt that releasing a larger number of low-content packages was "chaotic".[51] Via a press release, the team announced that the first two planned DLC packages would release on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live a month ahead of PCs and the PlayStation 3 system.[52] At the 2011 QuakeCon conference, the team unveiled Skyrim's special edition package. Bundled with a copy of the game is a map of the game world, a 12-inch figurine of the game's antagonistic dragon Alduin, as well as a 200-page concept art book and a DVD feature about the making of Skyrim.[53] In October 2011 pictures of many pages of the manual of the game were leaked,[54][55] later followed by footage from the introduction, revealing some more details.[56] By November 1, 2011, a copy of the Xbox 360 version had been leaked and made available through the internet, allowing people with a hacked Xbox 360 to play Skyrim 10 days before its official release.[57][58] In the Netherlands, the game has been available for purchase since November 7.[59] On November 10 stores in Australia began selling the game ahead of its 11 November release date.[60] Kinect support On April 12 2012, Bethesda announced that Kinect support is coming for the Xbox 360 version of Skyrim. It will feature more than 200 voice commands[61]. Sales During the first day of release, Steam showed over 230,000 people playing Skyrim concurrently.[62] In the first week of release, Bethesda stated that 7 million copies of the game had been shipped to retailers worldwide, and that total sales through the following Wednesday were expected to generate an estimated US$450 million.[63][64] By December 16, 2011, this had risen to 10 million copies shipped to retail and around US$620 million.[65] Additionally, Valve stated that it was the fastest selling game to date on their Steam platform.[65] Steam's game stats page showed the game breaking a five million user record by having 5,012,468 users logged in as recently as January 2, 2012. During this time, Skyrim was the most-played game on Steam by a huge margin, with double the amount of players as Team Fortress 2, the second-placed game[66]. Skyrim remains one of the most-played games on Steam.[67] The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim received universal critical acclaim. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 95.22% and 96/100,[68][71] the PC version 94.42% and 94/100,[69][72] and the PlayStation 3 version 88.00% and 92/100.[70][73] IGN stated that "It's a mesmerizing game that draws you into a finely crafted fictional space packed with content... is one of the best role-playing games yet produced."[79] The Guardian said that "Skyrim is one of the most gargantuan undertakings gamers will experience all year. The sheer size of the adventure...is mind-blowing."[82] Wired.com wrote, "The game's greatest accomplishment is that it is a paradise of escapism. There are very few scripted quests that aren't worth experiencing."[83] GameSpot commented that "Skyrim performs the most spectacular of enchantments: the one that causes huge chunks of time to vanish before you know it"[77] and Joystiq wrote, "This is the deepest, loveliest world ever created for a single player to explore."[81] Famitsu gave Skyrim a score of 40/40, making it the first video game developed entirely by non-Japanese companies to receive a perfect rating from them.[78] Criticism was made about the PC version's user interface, with some critics remarking that it was designed for console controllers as opposed to the traditional keyboard and mouse setup.[98][99] Official PlayStation Magazine (UK) criticized the technical issues and feeling that the game was in an unfinished state, though gave it an overall good review.[80] At the launch of Skyrim a multitude of technical issues ranging from small to large in scale were being reported. Some examples include a texture down-scaling issue on the Xbox 360 version when the game was run from the hard drive;[100] crashes, slowdown and frame rate issues on the PlayStation 3 version when save files exceeded 6 MB,[101] commonly occurring due to extended game play times;[102] and various crashes and slowdowns on the Windows version. According to Skyrim's director Todd Howard the misconception of 'restrictive RAM'[103] is incorrect, "It's literally the things you've done in what order and what's running."[104] Patches Since release several patches have been published to address technical issues and improve overall gameplay. Patch 1.2 was released on November 29, 2011 to fix some of the game's issues;[105] however, some players reported new bugs in the game following the patch, including more frequent game crashes.[106] Patch 1.3 was released on December 7, 2011 to improve stability, further address known issues, and fix some of the problems that were introduced in version 1.2.[107]Patch 1.4 was released 1 February 2012 for the PC. Another list of issues and bugs were addressed in this patch as well as the Skyrim launcher support for Skyrim Workshop (PC).[108] Patch 1.5 was released on 20 March 2012 for the PC. Numerous bugs were fixed, as well as the inclusion of new killcams.[109]